Lodging establishments, such as hotels and motels, have a need for a large number of telephone sets. Sometimes each room in a lodging will have several telephone sets. Frequently, an establishment will have special requirements for the configuration of the face of the telephone. For example, one row of pushbutton keys may be preprogrammed to connect the user to various in-house services provided by the hotel, such as room service, a health club and a dry cleaning service. Another hotel may offer different services, and therefore need a different configuration of pushbutton keys. Therefore, it is desirable to have a telephone set in which the pushbutton keys can be easily reconfigured.
Telephone sets are known in which the pushbutton keys can be reconfigured. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,172,805 discloses a pushbutton and cover assembly that allows the buttons to be removed when the top and bottom parts of the telephone set are separated from each other.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 4,845,748 discloses a telephone structure that does not require fasteners to attach the keypad to the telephone set. U.S. Pat. No. 4,355,211 discloses a pushbutton module in which individual keys can be replaced.
A problem with all of these telephone sets is that the reconfiguration of the keys cannot be accomplished without taking the telephone set apart.